Traveling Cat

From the BBC:

Homeless Kenyans face grim return
By Josphat Makori
BBC News, Molo

After spending the past four months in a tent in a camp for the homeless, Mary Wambui, a Kenyan mother five, jumped at the chance to return home.

“Life here is so miserable. We live in the same tent with our children; you literally have to jump over each other, to get in,” she told the BBC. “Look around, there are no toilets, bathrooms or anything else. it’s been unbearable.”

She and her family were among the first to take advantage of the government’s programme to resettle the 140,000 people still displaced by the violence following last December’s elections.

But others in the camp in Molo are not convinced that the inauguration of a power-sharing government last month really means the violence is over.

“We are not livestock to be taken back to the slaughter,” one old man said.

“Yes we want to go back home but we want to go and stay. So let the government first facilitate meaningful peace talks and then we can be comfortable to return.”

Some say that while the politicians have agreed to share jobs - and power - some of the underlying issues such as land disputes and poverty have not been tackled.

Mrs Wambui is from the Kikuyu community of President Mwai Kibaki. On New Year’s Day, a band of youths, armed with arrows, clubs and machetes attacked her home and razed it to the ground.

They also raided her storehouses and made away with her food stocks. Other Kikuyus living in the area were also targeted.

The attackers were from the rival Kalenjin group, who insist that the entire Rift Valley province is their ancestral home and that other Kenyans are “outsiders”.

Mrs Wambui was fortunate to have survived with her entire family.

When the buses and military trucks provided by the government arrived, she was one of the first people to get on board.

“This is like a miracle, I feel like I have been released from prison,” she told me cheerfully.

But that does not mean she is convinced of a warm welcome when she returns to her farm just 15km from the camp in central Molo.

She says she is still very scared of her neighbours who attacked her and chased her from her home.

And others in the camp are so apprehensive that they are not ready to return.

‘’I will accept to go back home only if the government provides security for us - if we go back alone, we fear we might again be attacked by the same people who forced us to leave,” said Joseph Mureithi, a father of two displaced from Muchoroini in Rift Valley.

“These people are still there and they are many compared to us. So unless we see the presence of police we are not going.”

The government, however, says security is no longer an issue, as it has deployed numerous security officers in the affected areas and built a new police station.

Some argue that peace cannot be imposed through the barrel of a gun. They say talks must be held between the rival groups to achieve real reconciliation.

At the Agricultural Showground in the Rift Valley capital of Nakuru, hundreds of homeless people have taken to the streets to protest against moves to take them back to their homes.

The protesters, most of who were displaced from the western town of Eldoret where more than 40 people were burnt in a church, vowed not to return until their safety is guaranteed and compensation made for what they lost.

‘Where do they want us to go? We’d rather die here. Let the government compensate us so that we can buy pieces of land elsewhere and rebuild our lives,” demanded one demonstrator.

For those who have returned, there was a mixture of anxiety and fear. Many came face-to-face with the immense loss their had suffered for the first time in four months. The places they were returning to now are a far cry from the homes they knew before the ill-fated presidential elections.

Mary Nyokabi, a resident of Kiambogo farm in Molo, sobbed uncontrollably at the sight of her husband’s grave.

The husband was hacked to death during the post-election violence.

Though going back home, many of the returnees had to be issued with tents that they will live in until they are able to rebuild the houses destroyed during the violence.

Although the government programme has now begun, there is no indication as to how long it will take to resettle all of them.

From the BBC:

Kenya’s cabinet learns the ropes

Kenya’s power-sharing cabinet is meeting for the first time since being sworn in more than three weeks ago. The coalition government, which was key to solving the nation’s post-election violence, has gathered for an “induction seminar”.

The BBC’s Josphat Makori in Kenya says it is a chance for former political rivals to learn how to work as a team.

Violent clashes after December’s election left some 1,500 people dead and 600,000 homeless.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed to share power in February after negotiations led by former UN head Kofi Annan. Weeks of wrangling followed about how to divide up the coalition cabinet.

Friday’s meeting was opened by Mr Kibaki, followed by a speech by Mr Odinga to the more than 90 ministers and deputy ministers. Our correspondent says that the induction is intended to help ministers who have not served in government before.

Issues of collective responsibility and issues of cohesion will be paramount, as some of Mr Odinga’s party ministers still talk as if they are in opposition, he says.

Before the ministers went into their closed-door session, Mr Odinga urged all ministers to work together and iron out any differences in private, not in the eye of the media.

On Thursday, a group of civil society organisations accused the new government of rushing the return of tens of thousands of displaced people, without addressing underlying ethnic tensions.

More than 25 organisations said the resettlement operation must be handled with greater sensitivity if Kenya was to achieve lasting peace. They called for greater consultation with communities and compensation to help displaced people rebuild their homes. The Kenyan government says it expects to complete the programme of resettling the 140,000 people still displaced within a month.

From the NY Times:

People driven off their land in Kenya began returning home on Monday

May 6, 2008
Scarred by Strife After Election, Kenya Begins to Heal
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

MOLO, Kenya — The bus was full. Expectant faces pressed against the windows. Soldiers stood guard with their guns.

It was time to go home.

“I’m ready,” said Dominick Ngigi, an 80-year-old farmer, stoically clutching a plastic bag with no more in it than a sweater and a flashlight.

For the first time since Kenya’s disputed election erupted in crisis in December, the government has started a large-scale operation to resettle thousands of people violently driven off their land.

Many have been living in squalid, wet camps that turned into breeding grounds for disease, crime, idleness and frustration. They have been languishing for more than four months, since the disputed election set off a wave of ethnic and political bloodshed that pitted neighbor against neighbor and drove upward of 600,000 people from their homes. More than 1,000 people were killed, and Kenya, once celebrated for its stability and relative harmony in a tumultuous region, ripped apart along ethnic lines.

Operation Rudi Nyumbani (Operation Return Home), which began in full on Monday, was all about stitching the country back together.

Packed buses with heavily armed soldiers in tow rumbled across a scarred landscape, past homes with roofs burned off, past trees downed in January to block roads, past the very spots where farmers, laborers, mothers and children were killed by machetes, arrows and fire.

The buses disgorged the occupants into familiar settings, but now with a strange dynamic: new arrivals in their old homes.

“I feel lucky to be back,” said Meshak Njata, a farmer, as he inspected a few baby pineapples in his weed-choked garden.

Still, not everyone felt that way.

At one camp in Molo, a large town in the Rift Valley where much of the fighting occurred, a mini-protest broke out Monday morning when hundreds of displaced people refused to leave.

Peter Ngoge, a shopkeeper, shook a piece of notebook paper listing several demands. He spoke for many, as evidenced by the feisty crowd behind him, when he said he would not leave the camp until the government improved security and paid compensation to those displaced.

“There’s no peace out there,” he said.

“What do you think is going to happen?” a man in a grubby sweater next to him asked. “They will kill us.”

Molo is emblematic of the us-versus-them problem still festering in Kenya. The town is nestled in a breathtaking sweep of rolling hills and impossibly green farmland. But it lies on a fault line between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu, two powerful ethnic groups that battled viciously after the election. The Kalenjin mainly supported the opposition, and the Kikuyu mainly supported the government, which is led by president Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu. Most of the families driven off their land were Kikuyus.

Kenya’s leaders face a growing economic and food crisis, and they decided that, ethnic tensions aside, now is not the time for miles of productive farmland to go to waste. As part of Operation Rudi Nyumbani, the government is promising food, tools, new houses and even cash for those who return to their farms.

To make its plan work, the government has said, there must be genuine ethnic reconciliation. Over the past several weeks, local administrators have held meetings, seminars and soccer games to build trust between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin.

“It’s a process,” said Katee Mwanza, Molo’s district commissioner.

And that process may be bearing fruit. Some Kalenjin elders, who just a few months ago had insisted that Kikuyus leave the Rift Valley, came to the Molo police station on Monday to welcome the Kikuyus back home.

“The war’s over,” said Samuel Kirui, a Kalenjin elder.

The change of heart came, he said, because “our leaders have agreed to work together, so why can’t we?”

But are the leaders really working together? Mr. Kibaki, who was declared the winner of the election despite widespread evidence of vote rigging, finally named a unity government in April, appointing his top rival, Raila Odinga, as prime minister. But the government’s first joint exercise, a tour of the turbulent Rift Valley, was marred by protocol wars centering on who was more senior, Mr. Odinga or Kalonzo Musyoka, the vice president and a Kibaki ally.

Those squabbles frustrated many Kenyans, especially at a time when the country is still suffering from self-inflicted wounds. The election crisis has crippled the safari business, one of Kenya’s biggest industries, with recent figures showing tourism down more than 50 percent. Inflation is shooting up, and jail guards recently held a violent strike. Teachers and nurses have threatened to follow suit. Yet the president’s cabinet is bigger than ever, with more than 90 ministers and assistant ministers and a record-breaking budget.

Meanwhile, many displaced people are returning to nothing.

“No cows, no sheep, no house, no corn,” said Mr. Ngigi, the farmer, as he got ready to board a bus. “All that is bad. But life in a camp is worse.”

Seems Mungiki gangs are active again and killed 12 recently. I tend to think of them more as mobsters than a cult, but either way the killing and extortion is alive and active in Nairobi especially. Even Cindy and I (or was it Susie and I?) would see their aftermath clearly on trips to Nairobi… burnt out matatus on the 6/9 route of Racecourse Rd were a scary reminder. Scary for one group to demand so much power…

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Riots erupted when members of a shadowy sect blockaded roads to protest the killing of their leader’s wife. Members of the notorious Mungiki gang, a cultlike organization that runs extortion rings across Kenya, attacked commuters and fought the police in several towns. Local news reports indicated that as many as 12 people might have been killed, but Kenyan police officials said they had no confirmation of any deaths. Virginia Nyakio, the Mungiki leader’s wife, was found dead last week with her throat slit in a forest outside Nairobi.

New from the BBC…

Violence as Kenya talks suspended

Violent demonstrations have broken out in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, a day after the opposition suspended talks on forming a power-sharing government.

Opposition supporters in the Kibera slum blocked roads with burning barricades and threw stones at police.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of talks with President Mwai Kibaki, accusing him of breaking an agreement over a new cabinet.

February’s deal was supposed to end the violence which followed disputed polls.

“We have resolved that negotiations… be suspended until [Kibaki’s party] fully recognises the 50/50 power-sharing arrangement and the principle of portfolio balance,” opposition spokesman Anyang’ Nyong’o told a news conference.

Mr Odinga also accuses Mr Kibaki of insisting that full executive power would remain exclusively with Kenya’s presidency.

The president expressed surprise at the accusations, as he said the two men had been close to completing their discussions.

Some of the crowds in Kibera have been shouting ‘’no cabinet, no peace, no Raila, no peace'’. The BBC’s Adam Mynott in Kibera says the disturbances are a reflection of opposition anger at the inability to find a satisfactory power-sharing deal.

KENYA PARLIAMENT
ODM MPs: 102
PNU MPs: 46
Pro-ODM MPs: 5
Pro-PNU MPs: 61
Vacant seats: 6

Kibera was the scene of much of the trouble which erupted following the election at the end of December.

The proposed power-sharing deal would create the post of prime minister, to be filled by Mr Odinga.

An agreement was meant to be reached on the other posts, allowing a coalition cabinet to be named.

Mr Odinga has written to the president proposing that his ODM yield the key posts of Finance and Internal Security, on the condition that the party fills the cabinet portfolios of Foreign Affairs, Local Government, Transport, Energy and Cabinet Affairs.

Some 1,500 people died and 600,000 were displaced during the violence. Many thousands have yet to return to their homes.

More from the NY Times…

April 6, 2008
Displaced Kenyans Live in Limbo as Aid Lags After Election Strife
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — Clinton Masheti, 8 years old and all alone, sits on a wooden bench rolling snakes out of clay. When the men came and started burning down houses in his village, his parents ran away — without him.

He now lives in the Nairobi Children’s Home, a place with cheery paintings on the wall and lots of blank little faces. He is among thousands of children lost or abandoned during the fighting that followed Kenya’s disputed election in December. If Clinton’s parents are not found by August, he will be put up for adoption.

“My father was a farmer,” he said.

That seemed to be all he knew.

In another part of town not far away, Jane Wanjiru has been living in muddy uncertainty since January.

She and about 200 other displaced people are camping just up the road from one of Nairobi’s fanciest malls. Their tents and clotheslines are curious sights so close to the Mercedes-Benzes and mansions, a reminder in case anyone here needs one that the issue of displaced people is not isolated to the Rift Valley, where most of the election-related bloodshed was, but has crept into the capital, Nairobi.

Still, very little has been done about it. More than 300,000 people remain homeless, living in camps or staying temporarily with relatives, but top politicians have been preoccupied with haggling over cabinet posts and forming a coalition government.

Officials recently announced that the new government would include 40 ministries, a Kenyan record, and many people fear that the money for salaries, cars and staff for the bloated cabinet will eat into what the displaced people need.

Donors have pledged millions of dollars to build homes and resettle people, but most of that is in limbo. And now it is the rainy season.

Nearly every day, the skies crack open and the water gushes down. Tents collapse, latrines overflow, firewood gets soggy, food goes uncooked and diseases like malaria and the flu flourish. Many of the displaced people are farmers, and the same rains they would have prayed for, had they not been violently driven off their land, are now a curse.

Three women in a camp recently died from exposure to the cold and 5-month-old twins from pneumonia.

“The rains are my biggest fear,” said Naomi Shaban, Kenya’s minister of special programs, who oversees the displaced persons camps. “These people are living in tents, and these are not just showers, they are heavy rains. There is a lot of contamination, with children playing in the water. We anticipate health problems.”

Many displaced people in this nation of 37 million are worried about how long they can survive and feel abandoned by their government. Ms. Wanjiru, who voted for Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s president, said she did not support him — or any other politician — anymore.

“All we get are words,” she said.

She spends her days washing the few clothes she has and sitting in a cracked plastic chair watching the cars go by. A mother of six with a seventh on the way, she said she did not even have the bus fare to go into town or check out the mall.

“I lost everything,” she said.

Ms. Shaban defended the president, saying he was very concerned about the plight of the displaced people and that helping them is a post-election priority. She said the government had already spent $11 million on food and medicine since January, though the distribution of supplies was sometimes delayed, because some of the people hanging around the displaced persons camps were “impostors” and it took time to verify who the real victims were.

The Kenyan government is asking donor nations, including the United States, to provide nearly $500 million to resettle people and rebuild the tens of thousands of burned down homes, businesses, public utilities and schools.

After the disputed election, supporters of the government and of the leading opposition party raged against each other. More than 1,000 people were killed, many quite brutally, and much of the fighting was along ethnic lines.

Ms. Shaban, like many other government officials, insisted that most of the displaced people would eventually go home.

“As the healing process goes on, more and more want to go back,” she said.

But many people are scared. Hundreds of thousands have already resettled in areas where their ethnic group dominates, because that is seen as the only way to guarantee safety. Just a few days ago, in late March, leaflets were circulated in several Rift Valley towns telling Kikuyus, Mr. Kibaki’s ethnic group, that if they returned, they would be killed.

“People are still bitter,” said Florence Muia, a Catholic nun who works with displaced people. “They have seen this violence before, and this time they are saying never again.”

Many of the displaced children, traumatized into near silence, simply have nothing to return to.

Naomi and Joseph Nganga were abandoned by their father after a mob burned down their house in the Rift Valley and their mother died from a stomach sickness in a displaced persons camp. They are sister and brother, 9 and 10 years old, and live in the children’s home with about 80 others, including: Clinton, who speaks in whispers; a 3-year-old whom workers call Baby Joshua because they do not have any more information about him; and a cheerful 16-year-old named Millicent who has a baby of her own.

The boys wear V-neck sweaters and the girls plaid dresses. They play in bare concrete rooms and drink plastic mugs of tea for a snack.

When asked if he wanted to stay in the children’s home in Nairobi or go back to his village, Joseph’s voice dropped to a mumble.

“I just want to go to school,” he said.

His sister nodded next to him and then looked down at her cracked leather shoes.

More from the NYTimes… definitely not a surprise for most folks.

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — Power-sharing in Kenya, apparently, is easier said than done.

Exactly one month after Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, and its top opposition leader, Raila Odinga, signed a power-sharing agreement in front of hundreds of cheering Kenyans and the world’s news media, the two remained deadlocked Friday over the formation of a new government.

Their agreement was supposed to usher in a “grand coalition,” billed as the only way to end two months of postelection bloodshed, ethnic tension and destruction that had turned Kenya, once a paradigm of stability, nearly upside down.

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, who helped broker the agreement, was hailed as a national hero. Pictures of his goateed face have festooned matatus, the rugged little minibuses that prowl Kenya’s streets. A baby rhino has even been named after him.

But his work may not be over. On Friday, the two sides continued to bicker over cabinet posts. Mr. Kibaki has offered the opposition a number of ministries, including roads, public works and tourism and wildlife, but Mr. Odinga, who is poised to become the prime minister of the new unity government, is holding out for the meatier portfolios, like finance.

Mr. Kibaki cannot part with that because “the president sets the national agenda, and finance is part of the national agenda,” according to Alfred Mutua, the president’s spokesman. The president, as commander in chief, is also refusing to give up control of internal security, defense and foreign affairs.

“We were naïve to think that after the coalition agreement, we would sit down as partners,” Mr. Mutua said. “They came sitting down as adversaries.”

The opposition says the agreement is not about partners or adversaries; it is about fairness.

“It can’t be that one side gets the 10 most important ministries and the other side gets the balance,” said Salim Lone, Mr. Odinga’s spokesman. “We’re being extremely reasonable. We’re just saying, ‘Stick to the spirit of the agreement.’ ”

And now Mr. Annan seems to be getting dragged back into the dispute. He spoke to both men by telephone this week, and the two sides have sent documents to him in New York, laying out their positions.

Mr. Annan’s response is, “They are big boys and can handle this themselves,” according to a person close to Mr. Annan who was not authorized to speak publicly. “What are we going to do? Have him fly back every time they hit a hard patch? They know what a grand coalition is. It’s time for them to do it.”

Meanwhile, many of the more than half million Kenyans displaced by the violence continue to suffer. Three women died this week at a camp for displaced people from exposure to cold weather, according to local news reports.

Well, Kofi Annan finally got fed up with the negotiations, finally sent the reps away, met with the politicians themselves, and brokered a power sharing deal. On paper and in theory it’s a good thing… the ODM/opposition party gets a prime minister seat for Odinga, and Kibaki (the corrupt, election rigging incumbent) gets to stay president. The problem is, these same two men tried cooperating before and had their falling outs before and it might just be history repeating itself. I’ll think positive and hope for the best. Still gives me great pleasure knowing ODM has the most seats in Parliament… hopefully that is what will really give the people their power… knowing their elected officials from their districts are representing them. I also take pleasure in knowing the fighting is supposed to stop. What to do about the 300,000+ who’ve been displaced from their homes is another issue altogether…

March 7, 2008
Kenyan Parliament Opens on Theme of Unity as Rivals Sit Apart
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Kenyan Parliament met Thursday for the first time since a power-sharing deal was struck to end a political crisis that had plunged the country into chaos.

Politicians from the governing party and the opposition spoke sweet words of unity — but the top leaders continued to sit apart from one another in the chamber.

“Honorable members, you must now become the ambassadors of peace and reconciliation,” President Mwai Kibaki told the lawmakers. “Please forget the history of what has happened, not because you want to put it aside, but because you want to do something much better.”

The lawmakers — who include 21 women, a record here — now begin the delicate business of carrying out the much-anticipated and possibly awkward power-sharing deal. Under it, the top opposition leader, Raila Odinga, becomes prime minister, and the governing party and the opposition divide the cabinet posts.

This was the deal to bring peace back to Kenya, which had been considered one of the most stable countries in Africa before the violence of recent months.

On Thursday, Mr. Kibaki urged Parliament to swiftly pass the legislation needed to turn the political agreement into law. Lawmakers on both sides have predicted more skirmishes over the next few weeks as they negotiate how much power Mr. Odinga actually gets and how cabinet positions are reassigned.

Mr. Kibaki said that once the new government was solidified, it would dive into an ambitious agenda that would include helping the fishing and tourism industries and building better housing for the millions of Kenyans who live in shanties.

“We still have many challenges, but we still have a lot to celebrate,” Mr. Kibaki said.

His speech seemed to be a pep talk for a country that sorely needed one. Kenya erupted into violence in late December after the national election commission declared Mr. Kibaki, the incumbent, the winner of a closely contested presidential race over Mr. Odinga, who claims to have won the most votes. Election observers have been unanimous that the results were tainted, with some saying that the government rigged the tallying of votes to give Mr. Kibaki a slender 11th-hour edge.

The controversy set off fighting across the country between supporters of Mr. Odinga and those of Mr. Kibaki, who are from different ethnic groups, and it stirred up long-festering political, ethnic and economic grievances. More than 1,000 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands fled ethnically mixed areas, creating a degree of ethnic segregation that had never existed in this country before. The violence has greatly diminished in the past few weeks, but the tension and displacements have continued.

Mr. Kibaki, who has been in Parliament since Kenya’s independence in 1963, said the government would set up a truth and reconciliation commission and address head-on the country’s painful ethnic issues. He also promised to pay for new homes for displaced people and to distribute free seeds to displaced farmers.

Mr. Odinga sat quietly throughout the speech. His party holds a slight edge in Parliament, which has 210 elected members and 12 appointed seats, though two of his colleagues were killed after the election, narrowing the opposition’s majority. Despite all the talk of a new coalition government, Mr. Odinga and his top lieutenants sat on the opposition side of the chamber on Thursday, across the room from Mr. Kibaki’s political allies, who occupied the government seats. There was mingling, though, among some freshmen lawmakers from the different parties.

Kenneth Marende, the Parliament speaker and a member of Mr. Odinga’s party, said, “The recent events have exposed the fault lines in our system of governance.”

“If Parliament descends into anarchy,” Mr. Marende added, “the Kenyan nation will not just sink, it will drown.”

Kennedy Abwao contributed reporting.

More from the NY Times. Seems negotiations aren’t going to well and protests might be happening again soon. This picture with the article was taken in the Mathere slum, a 5 minute matatu ride from the Sisters house in Nairobi. What a horrific moment to capture as the panga is coming down on someone’s head.

Opposition in Kenya Threatens More Protests
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s leading opposition party on Wednesday accused the government of stonewalling in negotiations to resolve the country’s festering political crisis and threatened to resume protests if a power-sharing agreement was not reached within a week.

At the same time, President Mwai Kibaki seemed to send mixed signals about whether he would approve the creation of a prime minister post for the opposition, which is one of its chief demands.

The political situation in Kenya remains tense and difficult to predict, with mediators from both sides engaged in heated talks about how to resolve a post-election crisis that has claimed more than 1,000 lives and destabilized the country. The trouble erupted in December after Kenya’s election commission declared Mr. Kibaki, the incumbent, the winner of the presidential election over Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging.

On Wednesday, leaders from the Orange Democratic Movement, Mr. Odinga’s party, said that unless the government supported a constitutional amendment to create a position of prime minister, giving them a meaningful role in government, they would take to the streets.

“If we do not see any progress in one week,” said Najib Balala, an opposition leader, “we are resolved for mass action.”

Mass action has been the opposition’s leverage of choice, but despite its leaders’ repeated insistence that protests will be peaceful, many have become riots, with dozens of people killed and property destroyed.

Mr. Kibaki has rejected the prime minister idea. He has indicated that he is willing to bring opposition leaders into his cabinet, but he has balked at making Mr. Odinga the prime minister and sharing executive power with him. The Constitution, which many Kenyans contend needs revision anyway because it gives the president too much power, does not authorize a prime minister position. Mr. Kibaki has said that any political settlement must obey the Constitution.

“It would be a dangerous precedent for the country if decisions were made that were outside the Constitution,” a statement issued Wednesday by the presidential press service said.

The two new Kenya volunteers, one of whom was heading to my village, have been rerouted to Nigeria instead as Kenya’s been deemed too unstable. I’m still heartbroken about the state of affairs in Kenya, but glad Kerry and Malika will be able to serve in Nigeria rather than nowhere at all. You can follow their adventures at http://malikatravels.blogspot.com.

I’ve been watching Last King of Scotland in the evenings this week before bed… Uganda’s definitely been on the mind. I loved listening to everyone in the movie speak Swahili (despite the fact most folks in Kampala speak Luganda, not Swahili). I loved watching the kids dance in village scenes, and watching the extras zoom by on motorscooters in Kampala scenes. (Knowing I was watching LKOS probably explains my third dream of the week: the one where I was responsible for executions/shooting people in the head… yuck).

On the Uganda connection, I’m excited that Susie and I have tickets for the Samite concert happening March 1st at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center. We spent quality time with him on a cross Uganda bus trip in his private taxi when he went back last year for his annual trip. A great musician, an intense personal life history, and a super cool, very generous guy overall. Looking forward to seeing him at the show!

I also talked with a new coworker this week who tells me she’s off to Tanzania for a month with her hubby and two school age kids… super fun! They’re even going to Lushoto based on our travels through. One bummer about the new job… I get 2 weeks fewer vacation time, which makes me sad about travel despite the fact I’ve got nothing yet planned. Ah well. Still hoping for a Panama, Argentina, or Cuba trip, and a Burning Man trip (very exciting, but not the same). Seems Thailand is out again this year (with Caroline’s shifting schedule).

Much love to everyone on this manufactured day of love.

I finally watched Cinema Paradiso last night on a recommendation from David Applebaum. Easy to see why, given my limited time with David, he would be so fond of the pic… it’s a very sweet, somewhat tragic, love story in a beautiful little town. The schoolhouse and the theatre in the movie actually quite reminded me of Isla de Mozambique. Nice…